


Heaven Full of Stars

by Celestia_Raven



Category: Ender's Game - All Media Types
Genre: Battle, Bugger Queen - Freeform, Ender's Game OC's, Formic Queen - Freeform, Other, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-08
Updated: 2017-03-14
Packaged: 2018-10-01 07:26:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10183979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celestia_Raven/pseuds/Celestia_Raven
Summary: After Mazer Rackham has ended the Second Invasion, the People In Charge decide they can't wait for geniuses to just APPEAR. So, they fling 20 adolescent girls into space the same way they did with Mazer Rackham (on different ships, obviously). For three years, everything moves along smoothly, until the ship decides to die and crashes on guess where, THE BUGGER'S PLANET. Whose idea was it to send the ship by there? Who knows! Will everyone die? FIND OUT!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The girls crash, encounter the Formic Queen, and yet Chloe is still throwing a dance party.

It was a sight to behold. An immense, red cloud of dust had begun to swirl gently in the wind. Where had this giant dust storm come from? In the midst of it all, there was a single, destroyed starship. 

From the eyes of an onlooker, the Starship was enormous, about a mile in diameter. It was badly burnt and had taken quite a bit of damage upon hitting the ground. Was it a fighter? Probably not. Did it come with pilots? Most likely. 

The ship, entire of itself, was a housing unit. Within it lay 20, unmoving adolescents.  
From within the depths of the spacecraft, one girl fluttered her eyes. Finding the strength to open them, she glanced about the wreck of the ship. Bodies lay askew, although the thrum of life was present in the air. For a moment, Anastasia struggled to recall the events of the morning.

Ah, yes. Now she remembered. The engine had failed. She had rushed into the control room, trying to steer them away from certain death. Given the fact that the ship had been plummeting towards this planet as fast as gravity had allowed, she had done a pretty good job. 

Shakily standing up, the girl stumbled over to the window. The planet looked relatively barren, the ground consisting of reddish-brown rock and soil. The terrain was slightly hilly, and she thought she could see a lake in the distance. The sky could have been Earth’s. 

Crossing the corridor, she pushed open the door the the climate control room.. Its job was not only to monitor the climate outside, but to control the temperature inside. The default temperature was 65°F, and the allowed range was from 32°F to 110°F. However, there was a little thermometer on one of the walls that told you what the temperature was outside. Usually, it just read -454.81°F, but today it read 63°F. 

Deciding that the planet appeared to be rather inhabitable, the girl went to wake someone else on the ship.. She found the girl in question unconscious in the computer room, one of the computers still displaying code she had been writing. Chairs were scattered around the room, and a few computers had fallen off the desks.   
The second was lying in the middle of the room, her long, white hair askew. The first one nudged the her awake. 

“Ugh... Anastasia?” she paused for a moment, taking in the scene. The newly awakened girl’s face fell. “We crashed, didn’t we.” Anastasia nodded grimly, then proceeded to help the second girl to her feet.. She stumbled across the room and peered out one of the windows at the planet they had landed on. “Is it inhabitable?” she questioned.

“Possibly,” Anastasia answered. “Celestia, do you have a way to detect what kind of gasses there are in the atmosphere?” 

“I could run a test on that, yes.” 

“Please do so. I’m going to scan ship to see how much damage we’ve dealt.” The two girls nodded officially and strode off in opposite directions to perform their tasks. 

The starship’s heat and fire shield had been diminished; this probably happened when they entered this planet’s atmosphere. The front part of the ship had completely caved in, and all of the ship’s flight controls had been crushed. Anastasia was lucky she survived, waking a mere five feet away from the crushed part. 

Wait, that meant that the oxygen supplier had stopped functioning, so she had been in direct contact with this planet's atmosphere the entire time. Anastasia hadn't even noticed. Unless there was some toxic chemical in the air that took a while to infiltrate the human body, this planet would be entirely habitable. She rushed back to the climate control room to inform Celesia about her findings. 

In the climate control room, there was also a complex device that allowed the user to analyze the chemical properties of the atmosphere outside. Like most of the non-weapon or user friendly equipment on the ship, Celestia was the only one who knew how to use it. 

“Well,” she concluded, “It looks as though there are no toxic gases, and there is plenty of oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. This planet seems… habitable.” 

“Yeah,” replied Anastasia. “It is. When the ship crashed, it caused there to be some, well, holes in it, so we’ve actually been exposed to the atmosphere this entire time.” Celestia nodded curtly. 

“We might as well wake the others now,” she decided. “We’ll need some help to repair the ship and scout the area.” Anastasia nodded in agreement, and the two strode off to wake the others.   
Overall the death count was pretty small. A couple of the younger ones had died when the ship had crashed, and there was one girl whose leg was completely crushed. Nothing they couldn’t handle. 

After most of the others had woken up (there was one girl who had a rather serious concussion), the toon leaders and commanders stepped outside.   
Before the ship had departed, the International Fleet had separated the 20 children into 4 toons, giving each toon a leader. They gave the ship two co-commanders. Both were rather power hungry, and the IF felt that they would abuse their power if either was granted supreme rule.

“Any clue, like, where on this planet we landed?” a girl named Tekla inquired. Tekla was a strange name, but the girl herself was even stranger. She had naturally red eyes, and loved to combine the two colors white and black in the strangest patterns. For as long as anyone could remember, she had insisted on dying her hair half white and half black, splitting in the middle. She was,   
however, a vicious fighter, and all but refused to go down. 

“No clue, but whatever’s in this air, it’s doing wonders for my hair!” A girl named Chloe was obsessively flipping her hair and taking pictures to post to her social media. Being in space was no reason not to stay caught up with the latest news! No one had a clue why Chloe had been made a toon leader, as all she could think about was social media and parties. She had a short, teal blue wavy bob and wore magenta contacts. Despite all of that, the IF had made her a leader, and they all had to live with it. Tekla groaned and stuck her middle down her throat.

“If you want, you can come scout with me,” Anastasia pulled up riding her techno, partly purple motorcycle. Strapped to her arm was something that Celestia had named the Little Devise. Granted, she wasn’t that great at naming things. Anastasia’s wavy, purple hair was pulled back in a high ponytail that just reached her shoulders. She had, however, left her bangs out, thus her left eye was only partially visible. Her eyes were purple as well, and whether or not she wore contacts she refused to say. Anastasia was, if possible, mildly similar to Tekla, but not quite as violent and a bit more strategical. 

“Sure.” Tekla jumped off the top of the ship where she had been previously sitting. “Better than having to stick around listening to Chloe.” 

“OMG, guys look!” called Chloe. “I’m eating a Milky Way bar, and I’m looking at the Milky Way! HA!”

“You can’t even see the Milky Way from here,” Anastasia pointed out, but Chloe was laughing so hard she couldn’t hear. Tekla rolled her eyes and looked as though she were about to die of boredom and disgust. Anastasia snickered.

Tekla jogged over to the starship’s garage and extracted her motorcycle. It was mostly back with an off color of white. Igniting the engine, Anastasia and Tekla rode off into the distance, looking mildly like si-fi cowboys. 

“Live stream video game par-tay!” screamed Chloe, falling sideways off the ship. “Who’s with me!” 

Tekla and Anastasia had been riding for hundreds of miles and still had seen nothing noteworthy. This planet was kinda cold, Tekla noticed. Really cloudy. This was good, Tekla couldn’t stand hot weather. She hoped it snowed - throwing snowballs at Chloe and messing up her hair would be hilarious. Tekla was so busy giggling about how mad Chloe would be that she didn’t notice the cliff right in front of her. 

“LOOK OUT!!!” screamed Anastasia, grabbing Tekla by the shoulder. Tekla slammed on the brakes not a second too soon - her bike was a centimeter away from plummeting down to the-  
“Woah.” For the first time in forever, Tekla was stunned. The scene looked like it came straight out of a sci-fi movie. In front of the two girls lay a massive, populated valley. Hundreds of orange colored, tall buildings lay scattered out beneath them. The buildings were not a boring rectangel shape as they were on earth, but had many irregularities and were a sight to behold. The adverse landscape had been handled well, as sprawling stone pathways spread across the land. 

“Well,” concluded Anastasia. “Pretty sure this planet's already taken.” Tekla was about to laugh and agree, when a look of horror spread across her face. She swore badly. 

“Anastasia - you know what this is, don’t you?” Anastasia looked slightly confused, like the answer was right on the tip of her tongue. “All those videos, those ships - the architecture is the same!” The look of horror then spread over Anastasia’s face, and realized what Tekla is thinking. 

“This is the bugger’s planet.” As though the threat had, at that moment, become real to them, the two girls then rode off on their motorcycles as fast as they would go. 

Back at the crashed ship, it looked like the interior had been transformed into a disco-tech with music and all. A slightly annoyed looking Celestia sat on the sidelines and watched Chloe dance crazily. Celestia, therefore, was the only one who noticed a panic - stricken Tekla followed by a heavily panting Anastasia. 

“Why,” Anastasia gasped, “did you make us run a 2k after our motorcycles died?!” 

“The buggers!!” Tekla, however, had too much nervous energy to be tired, and was screeching hysterically. The buggers seemed to be the very reason for these girls’ creation. Every day of their lives, they had been told that their exceptional intelligence would one day save the world. An enemy alien species, the buggers had one day invaded Earth and attacked for seemingly no reason. Eventually, a hero named Mazer Rackham had defeated a colony of them, and the buggers had not been seen since. However, there was the fear that the buggers would come back. That was where the girls would come in. In 65 Earth years, thousands of interstellar warships would reach the buggers’ home planet. Having been kept young due to speed of light travel, the girls would return as grown adults and supposedly win the war. If anyone knew the true horror of the buggers, these girls did. 

“Celestia - the buggers! We landed on the bugger’s planet!” Celestia’s eyes widened slightly, appearing a bit surprised. 

“Wow. That’s unfortunate.” 

“We should probably do something,” Anastasia suggested. She was now on her feet, though holding her side due to a painful cramp. “Let’s start repairing the ship.” 

“Wait,” Tekla gasped. “On the way back, I think I spotted a lake. Maybe we can try to inject poison in it or something, then drain it into the plumbing system?” Celestia, not wanting to do anything remotely physical (or mechanical, for that matter), immediately jumped at the chance. 

“I’ll go - we can take back a flask of water and determine the, um, fluid necessities that the formics have. It may be easier to deprive them of one than to actually create some sort of poison.” Of course, Celestia had no idea how to go about doing that, but she would figure it out. There was nothing she couldn’t figure out.   
“So,” Tekla asked, cracking her knuckles deviously. “What side effects should the poison have? Maybe it should make them really thirsty, or just old fashioned painful?” 

“That’s terrible!” A girl by the name of Rosemary emerged from the ship’s garage, where from where she had been listening. Celestia took note of the sound-conducting door material - she would have to make it radiation resistant. 

“Yeah, well, blowing up all of China isn’t exactly good!” Anastasia retorted. 

“You’re already planning to kill their entire city - that’s sort of equivalent!”   
As she was three years younger than Celestia and wasn’t a toon leader or anyone important, Celestia payed Rosemary’s opinion no mind. However, when Tekla began to reenact formics dying for the sake of making Rosemary’s eyes tear up, Celestia decided it was time to get the motorbikes. Thank goodness the formics weren’t aware of this nonsense. 

Alas, Celestia was gravely mistaken. The buggers had noticed their arrival, and were debating whether or not to panic. For the young queen, however, there was no question. She had been born a mere eight years ago, and had been greatly shaken when her mother had died three years ago. Bugger queens usually did not rise to the throne until at least the age of 20, but as she was the only queen alive she had been crowned at five. 

The buggers had retreated to their home planet vowing never to attack the humans again unless necessary, but each of them had been privately terrified that the humans would come for revenge. Humans were quite serious about revenge, after all. The young queen was on the verge of a mental breakdown about having to lead an entire species against their enemy, and was looking for any sort of clues from the humans that they were not here to fight. 

When Anastasia’s and Tekla’s motorcycles had ridden to the edge of the cliff, the young queen had been petrified with fear. They were going to attack, she just knew it. No, they deserved the benefit of the doubt. But still… 

The apprehension had been to much for her. As of the present, the young queen was hidden behind a large hill, watching the humans. They were yelling at each other making quite a bit of noise. That was how humans communicated, right? Did the girl’s dying act mean they were going to kill the buggers? However, the Queen did not have much time to ponder as several girls mounted their motorbikes. At last, the bugger Queen’s nerve gave out, and she bolted away at top speed. 

After several minutes of running, the Queen could hear the roar of motorbikes behind her. There was no way she would make it all the way to her city. Spotting a nearby cave, the bugger Queen dived inside. 

Upon their leave, Chloe had come outside and said she wanted to accompany them. Apparently she wanted to post every ounce of their battle strategy on social media. No doubt it would get her millions of hits, but was now really the time? Anyway, upon reaching the lake, Tekla noticed a small figure diving into a cave maybe 30 meters off. 

“Hey, did anyone see that?” 

“See what?” Celestia inquired disinterestedly as she bent down to inspect the water. 

“It looked like something dived into that cave over there,” Tekla pointed. Immediately, Tekla felt a breeze behind her and leaned to the side not a second too soon - Anastasia went whizzing by in the direction of the cave. 

“Hey!” called Tekla. “You trying to kill me or something?” Nevertheless, the three girls followed Anastasia in the direction of the cave. Upon their arrival, Tekla apprehensively tossed in a rock about the size of a large watermelon. A gasp resounded from inside the cave. 

“Did you hear that?!” Tekla hissed. “Something’s down there.” 

“I knew it,” Anastasia had breathed back. For a moment, no one moved. Then, Tekla began to silently make her way down into the cave using acrobatics. 

“What are you doing?!” hissed Chloe. “All the viewers of my livestream are telling you that this is a bad idea!” Tekla, however, shushed her and motioned for the others to follow. Surprisingly, Celestia was the one who proceeded to silently enter the cave. Huh, wasn’t she the one who was supposed to have good judgment or something? 

“Can’t help it,” Celestia breathed into Tekla’s ear. “Too curious. Observing formic behavior would be a huge advancement for science.” Whatever. At least Tekla had backup. Soon, curiosity got the better of the other two and they descended down into the cave. 

“Sorry everyone, but I wanna be focused on my life, not the livestream,” Chloe whispered into her phone. “I’ll do my best to record the next part, but I can’t promise anything good. Peace out, literally living on a prayer!” Chloe hit the stop recording button and pocketed her phone. 

The cave was eerie and quiet, the floor consisting of the same material outside. There were many interesting stone formations, made of a stone-like material; a variety unknown to earth. Everything was a bit damp, and vision was poor.

“It’s in here somewhere,” Tekla breathed into Anastasia’s ear, and Anastasia nodded. The rest of the party was about to give up when Celestia shushed them. 

“I hear something.” They listened. And they heard. In the corner of the cave they couldn’t make out, something was breathing very heavily. 

“It’s a bug-” Tekla began, but Anastasia hastily cut her off, taking charge. Quiet as a mouse, she extracted a flashlight and helt it up. Then, with the other hand, Anastasia began to count down. Five, four, three, two one…! She flipped on the light. Sure enough, the beam cast down upon a bugger. 

Unable to take the suspense anymore, they all screamed, the teenager in them revealing itself. After about a minute of screaming, the girls remembered that they were the ones with emergency lazer guns and had the upper hand. However, there was still the problem that the buggers would now know of their existence, and they debated whether or not to kill the one they had found. There was still a nervous sense of apprehension in the air; of ready fear, but not nearly as much as there had been earlier. 

“It’s like, a bug right?” Tekla was pointing her laser gun at it, ready to fire. 

“I dunno, Tekla. We’re monkeys, right?” Anastasia muttered, but quietly so that no one could hear. 

“We can squish it, right?” Tekla’s finger began to pull back on the trigger. 

“But, if we kill it, then the buggers will notice it’s gone and will get suspicious anyways.” Though Chloe was a total nutcase, she was amazing at shooting down arguments. While it was annoying most of the time, it was useful for making important decisions.   
"Maybe we can threaten it to silence?” Anastasia suggested. She glanced over to Celestia for assistance, but Celestia didn’t seem to care whether it was killed or not. She was scribbling things down in a tiny notebook, taking notes on the formic. 

The formics, while being ant-like, were bipeds like the humans. This one’s skin was of a deep red color; whether or not the formics’ skin tones varied she would have to look into. While most of its skeleton resident inside, there were still evident remains of an exoskeleton. There was one thing that confused her though - this formic looked rather small, maybe four feet tall. Though that height was expected of the workers, visual inspection had told Celestia that this one was of the female gender - a queen. 

It was important that it stayed alive, then. If a queen died, so did it’s colony, and that would cause major uproar. However, upon voicing her opinion, Anastasia retorted, 

“Great! Then the buggers will know who’s boss!” Tekla and Anastasia fist-bumped. 

“Except we’re not!” Tekla and Anastasia looked at Celestia as though she had insulted a God, then giggled. “Seriously! It would be an entire species vs 16 kids!” 

“Genius kids!” Chloe giggled, and Anastasia and Tekla made finger guns and pointed at Celestia jokingly. 

“She’s got a point, though,” Anastasia decided, her playful mood dissipating. “You're right - I don’t think we’d be able to take on an entire species.” 

“Hey, it looks kinda tiny,” Chloe remarked. “And female.” Tekla giggled, and Anastasia kicked her in the shins. 

“Aren’t the queens supposed to be larger?” Tekla inquired. 

“I bet it’s younger, possibly still a child,” Anastasia replied. “Celestia, what do you think?” 

“I agree with Anastasia,” Celeste answered. 

“Yeah! That means we can kill it easier!” Tekla cheered. She rushed out of the cave to go grab something. 

“We’ll tell her when she comes back,” Chloe snickered. Their attention then turned back to the bugger. 

If you looked close enough, Anastasia noticed, you could almost tell what it was feeling in it’s eyes. What she saw confused her - it was… desperate? Not in a fearful way, though. It was trying to tell her something. After shooting back what she hopping a look of total confusion, the bugger then assumed a look of determination. Anastasia could feel the temperature drop, but her curiosity got the best of her and she continued to stare into the bugger’s eyes unblinkingly. She thought she could hear Chloe say something and could feel movement out of the corner of her eye, but she was unable to focus on anything besides - 

HOLY SHIT! Out of the end of one of it’s arms, a sharp spike extended. The bugger moved the arm slowly towards Anastasia’s neck. She was able to keep her cool, but totally lost it when the arm jolted out inches from her neck. 

“Nope nope nope nope nope!” She would have been injected had she not literally dropped to the floor that very moment and screamed. Squeezing her eyes shut, she rolled out of the way and could hear the sound of metal hitting flesh. Opening her eyes, Anastasia saw the bugger lying on the floor, and a panting Tekla holding a frying pan.   
“I just saved your ass.” Tekla grinned at Anastasia, whom stood up and dusted herself off.

“Thanks,” she replied. “We should go though. Before it wakes up.” Nodding and pocketing their weapons, the girls climbed out of the cave. Mounting their bikes, Anastasia asked Tekla,

“Why did you bring a frying pan?” 

“In case I needed to fry eggs. Or enemies.” Anastasia laughed. 

“Hey, wanna race back to the ship?” 

“Sure. And, for the record, I’m going to beat your -”

“NO SWEARING ON MY CHANNEL, TEKLA!” Chloe screamed, waving her phone in the air. Tekla snickered and took off.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tekla breaks all the bones in her body, Rosemary goes missing, and Chloe is confused as to why Tekla is lying out in the open when the buggers could come and kill her at any minute! Things are clearly going well.

Back at the ship, Celestia entered the data she had gathered into her computer. It had been a very interesting outing.  
  
The formic seemed to have some sort of connection with Anastasia, but Anastasia obviously had no clue what it was. The formic knew something the girls didn't, which was unnerving. As for why it had been extending its finger towards Anastasia, Celestia could only guess. Possibly to inject some sort of poison? If only Anastasia had stayed still one more second! Celestia concluded that it must be some sort of broken telepathic connection. How a connection could be forged without Anastasia's knowledge was a mystery even to Celestia.  
  
The queen did appear to be young. Looking at a formic autonomy and estimated rate of development, it’s age was somewhere between 6 and 10. Young. Easier prey, Tekla had said. Because the queen was assumably heavily guarded and would be greatly missed, they would have to be careful using that upper hand.  
  
Saving her notes, Celeste pushed back her swivel chair and spun around the room, in deep thought about the situation at hand. Now that both sides knew of each other’s existence, it was only a matter of time before something happened. One side would attack. The other side would become angry. A war would start. Which side would attack first, it was impossible to tell.  
  
Anastasia was just as stressed about the situation as Celestia, and was determined to have as much of an advantage as they could obtain. She had sent everyone to work either repairing the ship or readying their set of weapons and defenses. Already the nuclear shield was up and running; it would buy the humans time but would not hold for long if the formics dared to get close enough to destroy the focal point.  
  
While the pilot controls were still completely dysfunctional, the starcraft’s lockdown system had been updated and put into play. They had sealed she ship from the outside, and common weapons would not be able to penetrate it. If a war were to start, however, they would need a more secure base.  
  
As she was striding along the corridor, Anastasia bumped into someone. It was that young girl with the short brown hair, the one that had attempted to break up the fight.  
  
“Hello Rosemary,” Anastasia addressed her. “As far as I know, the ship is on complete lockdown with weapons at the ready. Correct?” Rosemary nodded. “One question: why are you walking so quickly? You look like there’s somewhere you need to be.” Rosemary stared at her blankly. Anastasia was a naturally suspicious person, and noticed even the slightest details.  
  
“I-I, um, I was…” Rosemary blushed shyly. “Someone told me to meet up with them on the other side of the ship.” This was true. Every word she had just said was true. Rosemary had not lied. Rosemary was not a liar. No. The truth she was hiding would not hurt Anastasia. No one was getting hurt. This was the right thing.  
  
Anastasia was puzzled. Rosemary had never lied, yet she was clearly uncomfortable about something. Maybe she was interested in someone, she reasoned. And anyways, there wasn’t a lot of trouble an eleven year old could get into. She nodded and the two went on their way. Anastasia tried not to think about all the trouble she had gotten into when she was eleven.  
  
The sun had set. Oh, thank God. Now maybe Celestia and Anastasia would chill out; unless they were afraid of sleepwalking bugs. * _Remember when you were the one talking incoherently, Tekla?_ * Tekla irritatedly ran herself into the digital enemy's ship, dying. Ugh. Anastasia was a much better opponent.

Besides, the human’s technology was pretty good. Before the kids had been sent off, the ship had been equipped with a prototype of the Dr. Device - the power to destroy an entire planet with one blow. They could wipe out this entire species with one fire. Of course, she would die as well, but that was fine, she supposed. Death was probably interesting. Well, more interesting than Chloe and her rants about nothing. Seriously, all Tekla wanted to do was stuff her in Pandora's box. Although, in the actual greek myth, it was a jar, not a box. English was just to incompetent to translate it correctly.

Getting bored with her own train of thought, Tekla lept up from her bed. This was boring. Not to mention pitiful. Hiding from the enemy?! What sort of saviors of humanity were they?! Tekla grabbed her laser gun, her tranquilizer darts, and her frying pan (what the heck? It was pretty helpful last time), and plunked them down on her bed. Rushing into her bathroom, Tekla slicked back her black and white hair and did them into two neat french braids, tying each braid with a hair tie the opposite color of the braid. She looked at herself for a moment. Everything was either black or white, combining in crazy patterns. Except her eyes. Her crazy, red eyes. They really stood out. 

Perfect, she thought. Anything but normality. Before she left, Tekla perform her battle ritual. When she had been eleven and back on earth, Tekla had loved to collect weapons. Hanging on her wall was the very first gun to ever fire at the buggers. She leaned over and kissed it. May it bring her good luck. 

Silently, she maneuvered out of the door on top of her room leading to the top of the ship. Due to it’s circular shape, she could slide down it without getting hurt. Near the front, it was so low that she could jump off, only about five feet above the ground. 

Here in the back, the top was about 20 feet off the ground. Sliding down it was a real thrill, especially in the dark. Tekla was about to leap off to the perils of war when she saw movement near the bottom. Curious, Tekla listened intently to what was going on below. Strange; she couldn’t hear anything. The two figures were facing towards each other, clearly conversing, but Tekla couldn’t hear a word. 

As her eyes became more adjusted to the darkness, Tekla’s stomach lurched with fear - one of the shapes resembled a human, the other, a bugger. Silently readying her laser gun, Tekla launched herself off the side of the ship. 

“DIE!!” she shrieked, and fired. Due to the buggers quick reflexes, Tekla just barely missed. With the light of the laser, Tekla could see that it was the same bugger they encountered earlier that day. She knew the girl. Her name was Rosemary. 

When the laser had fired right at her head, the queen could feel the heat of it as it wizzed by the side of her head, sending shivers down her spine. She needed to get out of there, and fast. As the girl crashed into the ground (poor girl, that was a 20 foot drop), the queen grabbed Rosemary by the hand and began to pull, hoping she’d follow.  
She did not. Instead, the girl shrieked and tried to pull her hand away. The Queen felt a wave of pre-action regret - she didn't want to do this. Trying to convince herself this didn't mean she was in the wrong, the Queen extended one of her fingers, piercing Rosemary's skin and injecting a mild poison. While it was ineffective on the buggers’ strong immune systems, it would send any human to sleep for a few hours. 

Gently placing the limp girl in her arms, the queen glanced back at Tekla. She had not risen, and tears were leaking out of the corner of her eyes in pain. Depicted on her face was a hatred and determination that the queen had seen many times on human faces. This once again reinforced how much angst they must have caused the humans. 

The queen tried to tell Tekla that she didn’t want to hurt them, but just like that afternoon in the cave, Tekla didn’t understand. Heart overwhelmed with remorse, the queen began to gingerly carry the sleeping girl back to the sleeping city. 

Tekla wasn’t normally one to freak out. She loved danger. However, what she had just seen would be enough to send chills down anyone’s spine. The bugger had just fucking kidnapped one of the humans. It would probably use it for experimentation or something. Laying helpless and in pain on the ground, Tekla had thought that the bugger was going to take her for sure. Not wanting to push her luck, Tekla waited until the bugger was out of sight to scream for help. 

“TEKLA?!” O. M. G!!!!!!!! What was Tekla doing lying on the ground?! Doesn’t she know that’s unsanitary?! Or worse - what if the buggers came? She’d be easy bate! As Chloe ran through all the ways why lying on the ground was a bad idea, she questioned “Why are you lying on the ground?” 

“I fell off the damn ship!” Tekla cried savagely. “I’ve broken every single fuckingg bone in my body! Can you like, magically conjuring up a stretcher or something?” Who did she think Chloe was, Sandy McSmiley? Tekla was in a lot of pain, though. Chloe could let it go, just this once. 

“Uh, I can’t exactly do that, but I’ll go get you a stretcher!” Chloe skipped off. As she barrelled down the hallway towards the bio lab (where all of the medical supplies were kept), she happened to bump into Celestia, who was just leaving. “Celestia!” Chloe smiled. “What are you doing here?” 

“Well, it’s my lab,” Celestia started, “but specifically, I have obtained a DNA sample from the formic we had encountered and was performing a few tests on it.” Huh, Celestia sure had a lot of labs. Then again, Chloe had a room with a bubble bath the size of a pool (that had been everyone’s favorite when they were younger), so she wasn’t really one to talk. 

“Cool!” she replied. “What did the readings show?” 

“The formic in question is exactly 8 years and 42 days old, and is indeed a queen. It appears to have received traits from both it’s mother and it’s father about equally, so the males have more influence than we would have previously thought. Other than that, I did determine her exact skin shade and eye color, but I can’t really say anything about the brain.” Chloe nodded eagerly. 

“So, about what I’m here for, um, Tekla fell of the ship and sprained her, well, everything. Do you think you could help me carry the stretcher or something?” Celesta yawned and stretched tiredly. Another injury? She was already waiting for the girl with a concussion to wake up, now Tekla decides to go bonkers and jump off the ship? For a moment, Celestia was grateful she had a co-commander to help take care of lockdown. She had done an inspection, and Anastasia had done a pretty good job. 

“I suppose,” she answered, and dragged herself back into the biology lab to retrieve a stretcher. 

“We can all take a nice soak in the pool tube afterwards!” Chloe suggested. “We can play water polo and splash each other!” Celestia sighed. 

“We can’t afford to relax, Chloe. We’re teenagers - heck, some of us aren’t even 13 yet! What we’re attempting to do would be something that many grown adults would fail at! If we make it out of this alive, it’s going to be a miracle, and in order for us to even have a chance we have to give it our all. Not only that, but now one of our best fighters is injured! Anastasia’s good, but she can’t lead a war by herself.” Her statement sunk in, and Celestia cursed herself. Now was not the time for stress. If she couldn’t relax… “Well, maybe a short bath couldn’t hurt,” she reasoned. 

“Yay!” Chloe cheered. Pulling out her ID card, Celestia unlocked the heavy steel door and peered out into the night. Sure enough, there was Tekla, lying on the ground. 

“Took ya long enough!” she spat. “Get me inside. NOW!” 

“What?” Tekla was _way_  overreacting, thought Chloe. “It’s not like you’re going to be devoured by buggers or something now that we're here!” Tekla sighed, which is not what Chloe expected. Maybe an angry hiss? 

“Just… get me inside. I’ll explain later.” Carefully mounting Tekla on the stretcher, Chloe and Celestia walked back to the bio lab. After cleansing the places where Tekla’s skinn had scraped the ground, Celestia ordered Chloe to leave. It would not suit her to see how to mend a bone. 

After putting Tekla to sleep (this was not necessary, but Celestia enjoyed it, and it would help not to have Tekla’s stellar reflexes activate and punch her in the face), Celestia took several X-rays of where the bone had been broken. Thankfully, Tekla’s breaks were only minor fractures, and were easily mended. Unfortunately, Tekla would awake with the incredible, incurable pain of messily healed bones. Celestia was no medical doctor.

Finishing up, Celestia shut off the X-ray machine, and shelved all of her materials. She was obsessively neat and organized, and would not tolerate imperfection. Sliding a book off the shelf titled Common Formic Battle Formations (she was in the process of dissecting it for possible formic behaviors), Celeste sat down in a nearby chair to read.  
After an hour or so, Tekla awoke. Opening her eyes, she noticed Celestia reading next to her. 

“C-Clesta?” she slurred. Celestia quickly looked up and shoved the book away, staring intently at Tekla. 

“When you said you would explain-” 

“Oh that,” Tekla rudely interrupted her. Served Celestia right for being so demanding. “Well, when I was like, on top of the ship, I noticed that there was something that looked like a human and something that looked like a bugger. And well, you know me, I gotta shoot it. So I lept of the ship screaming and I shot, but I missed, and I landed on the ground.” Tekla paused while Celestia hurriedly jotted it all down. “When I landed, I noticed that it was the queen we saw earlier, and it was with that Rosemary girl.” Celestia nodded. 

After living on the ship with the same people for four years, you began to learn everyone’s names and faces, as well as their personalities. Rosemary was a kind, selfless girl who could be considered as the peacemaker. While being shy and a little nervous, she was mature for 11. Then again, none of these people could really begin to be considered children. 

“When the bugger saw me, it just about peed it’s pants,” Tekla giggled. “Then it tried to encourage Rosemary to come with it or something. She’s not an idiot and resisted, so the bugger shot one of it’s finger-things into her neck and she either fell asleep or died. Then they left.” It was a good think Anastasia had dogged the formic queen’s obvious attack attempt. And, now, the buggers' plan had been uncovered - sneakily pick them off one by one.

Nodding to Tekla and pocketing her notes, Celestia told her, “You should probably stay here for the night; I’m no doctor, and your bones might not be healed well enough for you to actually move your limbs yet.” Tekla nodded; she couldn’t really say no, and watched Celestia stride out of the room. 

_It seem’s like that girl always has somewhere to be_ , thought Tekla. 

Arriving at Anastasia’s door, Celestia knocked sharply. After a few seconds, the door swung open, revealing Anastasia, who had her hair down. Anastasia’s wavy, purple hair reached the most prominent part of her shoulder blades, and was parted to the side, almost covering one eye. Celestia swore she could see some purple mascara. Brushing her bangs out of her eyes with a long, black fingernail, Anastasia addressed Celestia. 

“What is it?” 

“Tekla has fallen off the ship, resulting in some injuries.” Anastasia cursed under her breath - Tekla was one of their best fighters - how were they supposed to have a chance without her?! Tekla was trying to do something heroic, no doubt; she always was. 

“What was she doing up there?” Anastasia inquired, though she was sure the answer would be similar to the one she had in her head. 

“I didn’t ask,” replied Celestia, “but there is something I’d like to talk to you about.” Anastasia invited Celestia into her room.

Anastasia’s room was mostly purple, her floor consisted of a plum-colored wood, and her walls were so white they were almost reflectant. Perpendicular to the wall the door was mounted on was a large bed with a dark, plum bedspread. The bed had a bit of a modern style, with the mattress sitting inside the box frame. There weren’t any stilts supporting it and the bed was close to the ground, and underneath it lay a fuzzy purple carpet. Wall plants were scattered on the wall behind the bed, giving the room a bit of a cool, forestry feel. Mounted on the wall facing the bed was a very large screen displaying a picture of a forest with a bit of a purple tinge. The wall opposite the door had another door supposedly concealing the bathroom, and a contemporary wenge bookcase filled with assorted books. In the center of the room hung a minimalistic cube chandelier, casting light on the large desk in the lower left corner. On it was a large, circular mirror and a closed computer. 

Sitting down in the purple-cushioned wall chair near the desk, Anastasia instructed Celestia to sit down. She did so on the bed.

“You know who Rosemary is, don’t you?” Anastasia nodded. Small girl, bright eyes. Always optimistic. Upon hearing these words, Anastasia’s heart sunk - right away she knew where this was going. She knew she should have followed Rosemary. However, informing Celestia of her idiocy wasn’t necessary, so Anastasia remained silent. “When Tekla was about to leap of the ship, she saw that Rosemary had encountered a formic. If Tekla hadn’t done something, Rosemary would have surely died, so I don’t blame her. She jumped off the side of the ship and shot at the formic but missed.” Tekla missed?! What kind of brains did these things have? This was bad. What the heck were they up against? “Then, she saw the formic send Rosemary to sleep and take her away.” Oh… oh God! One thing was clear - the buggers wanted war. Well, if they wanted a fight, then Anastasia was going to give it to them! She had known the tension couldn’t last forever and had been quite confused why the buggers hadn’t been attacking. 

“Well, if they want war, we’re going to give it to them,” Anastasia said this quietly, only emphasizing her anger. She stood up, about to inform the others. 

“Wait.” Anastasia plopped back down. “This could greatly inform us about the formics’ brain development. We’ve observed their tactic - picking us off one by one. Not a strategy any simple-minded organism could accomplish. That also means that, proving our recent theory, the formics have some sort of silent communication. Telepathy seems the most likely at this point.” Anastasia nodded. This made sense. Appearing to be done, Celestia rose. “I’m going to enter this into my computer,” she informed Anastasia. “Given the late hour, I suggest we wait to tell the others until tomorrow. However, I believe it would be a good idea to turn off inside access to the doors - we can’t have anyone wandering around outside.” 

“I’ll make sure to do that,” Anastasia replied. “Good night.” Celestia shot her a weary smile and walked lazily off. Tieing her hair into a low ponytail (she was too tired to do an amazing job but hated anyone to see her with her hair down), Anastasia directed herself towards the starcraft’s security controls. 

As she walked, Anastasia pondered what she had just heard. This wasn’t the bugger’s usual attack strategy. Formations, that’s what the buggers were most contempt at. It didn’t seem right in her brain that the buggers could be deceitful. It wasn’t as though she had any hard logic to prove it; the idea simply raised a red flag in her brain. It’s probably nothing, she thought. If there wasn’t logical evidence,, then the feeling was groundless and unimportant. 

One thing, however, did seem arguably wrong in Anastasia’s mind. If the bugger had wanted to pick them off one by one, why hadn’t it killed Tekla as well? That was the logical thing to do - then there wouldn’t be anyone to testify what had happened. Something didn’t add up… but what?


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well we've got to get Rosemary back, haven't we? And what is the most logical thing to do in this scenario? Why, break into the Formic Queen's castle-thingy and retrieve her by force!

The Bugger Queen sighed. Anastasia really didn’t have any idea who she was. Not only that, but the connection that had been achieved was completely gone. Connections like that should be able to hold up through any time span - what had happened?    


Staring wide-eyed out of the large window on top of her home, she could see a tiny rock out in the distance. While it appeared to be a rock, the Bugger Queen had gone to confirm that it was, indeed, a starship. Sighing again, she tore her eyes away from the scene and turned to the girl. 

Many wires and tubes were plugged into the girl’s brain. She sat in a cushioned, black chair. The wires would allow the Bugger Queen to understand the girl, the same way Anastasia had understood her mother.

The girl’s name was Rosemary, and she was a quiet, sensible girl; this the Queen now knew. She was ultimately frustrated with humanity; if they kept fighting, how did they hope to survive? The one thing that the queen had been able to detect, and had immediately taken advantage of, is that she was the one girl on that ship whom did not completely hate the buggers. One of the most striking traits about Rosemary was that no matter what anyone did, she would always believe there was good in them. 

The Queen gazed sadly out the window again. If her plan failed and she could not communicate with Rosemary, humanity would hate her for sure. 

 

Back at the starship, everyone was panicking. The war was on, and it was an entire species versus 16 girls!  _ Great job getting yourself captured, Rosemary! _ Anastasia was  _ not _ happy. Being the commander of an entire army (all Celesta ever thought about was science; some commander), she expected everyone on the ship to be somewhat responsible. By somewhat responsible, she meant not blindly doing something because the enemy told you to. 

Wait. Anastasia stopped in her tracks. The buggers had no known means of communications, right? The IF had always said that! The reason it was so hard to understand the buggers was because their form of communication was unknown! 

Yet somehow, they had communicated with Rosemary. Inside that girl’s little head was golden information: information humans couldn’t afford to lose. 

She had to be rescued right away! Anastasia’s instincts told her to inform the crew, but there wasn’t time. This had to be done now, with as few people as possible-a larger headcount meant each person had a smaller room for error. Anastasia sprinted down the hallway faster than she had in a long time. When she tried, Anastasia could run fast. 

Skidding around a corner, Anastasia practically slammed herself into Tekla’s door. She was seriously hoping Celestia had returned Tekla to her room. Righting herself, she began to pound on it. 

“ _ Tekla!!! _ ” she hissed. A furious Tekla swung open the door. 

“What do you think you’re playing at?!” she cried. Anastasia clamped her hand on Tekla’s mouth and lunged into the room, swinging the door shut behind her. Who knew- she had still retained her kidnapping skills! Tekla looked utterly bewildered. 

“Rosemary!” Anastasia had so much to say and so little time to say it. “We - we have to save her! The buggers communicated with her! She knows something! We’ve got to go! TONIGHT!” Panting, Anastasia stood up from the white, marble floor and sat down on the bed, attempting to calm herself. 

It was an odd room, but there was a sense of insane feng-shui. The bed was placed in the same spot in the room as in Anastasia’s room, but Tekla’s bedspread displayed abstract patterns of harsh white and black. On the wall in front of her bed, there was a large display case. It contained throwing stars and guns of all ages, as well as assorted knives and many other sharp things Anastasia didn’t know the name of. Oh yes, there were the claw-gloves Tekla had used when Anastasia had thrown one of Tekla’s throwing stars back when they were 12. Anastasia still had scars from that. 

Finally tiring herself out, Anastasia began to explain to Tekla what she had discovered. 

“So, we need to get her now, right now. We have to be inconspicuous, so I’m taking you with me and no one else. For a moment, Tekla looked mildly honored to be the chosen one, but she quickly masked it. An evil grin spread across her face. 

“Oh, this will be great fun.” Tekla’s quiet tone was laced with evil, causing Anastasia to grin too.

“Bring your weapons,” she said, “but nothing too big. We don’t want to be seen.” Her feline side showing, Tekla agily opened the display case and removed her claws, a small yet modern gun, and… a little box?   


“Tranquilizer darts.” Tekla, observing Anastasia’s confused expression, shook the box. “It won’t completely kill, well, humans, but if our DNA is similar at all the poison will cause anything between extreme pain and death.” Sounded fine. Anastasia nodded, then said,

“Do you want to bring your frying pan? Seems pretty effective.” Tekla fell on the floor laughing, but was able to scoot into her bathroom and grab the frying pan anyways. 

“Alright,” she said, wiping a tear from her eye. “Let’s go beat those suckers to death with Momma’s frying pan!” Watching Tekla make an effort to hold all of her equipment, Anastasia realized she had forgotten to retrieve hers. She told Tekla to meet her in the garage where the means of travel were kept. 

Arriving back in her room, Anastasia sprinted over to the bookshelf and lightly tapped the wall behind it. The wall attached to the bookshelf opened like a door, revealing a small closet filled to the brim with weapons. Anastasia was a huge fan of nuclear weapons as well as creatively built lazer guns. There were huge guns in the shape of cannons - miniature Dr. Devices the IF had equipped the girls with should trouble arise. However, the gun Anastasia snatched off the wall was only about as wide and long as her forearm. 

For the first couple years on the ship, Celestia had dissected one of the Dr. Devices and had been able to replicate it. She had recently been able to compress most of the technology, resulting in a normal-sized gun with the power to blow up a building. Small but powerful. Anastasia’s favorite weapon.

Not needing to grab anything else, Anastasia slipped out the door and locked it behind her. Untying and taking off her wedged ankle boots, Anastasia ran silently down the hall in her stockinged feet. 

Skidding around a corner, Anastasia came across a brown, wooden door. It was distinguishable as the garage for it was the only room with a passcode and the only door that remained unpainted. Punching in the code, Anastasia swung open the door and found the lights already on. 

The garage was about twice as large as Anastasia’s bedroom, and had an array of useful traveling equipment. To the left, Anastasia noticed what looked to be a helicopter, as well as a single starship. Making a mental note that they weren’t completely unprepared, Anastasia stepped over to the right side of the room, where the motorcycles were lined up. Starting her own up, Anastasia noticed that Tekla had put a passcode on her’s, and was having a difficult time remembering the code. Eventually, Tekla just gave up and swung the keyboard into a nearby door frame, breaking it. 

“Celestia is gonna kill me,” Tekla grumbled, starting up her bike. Putting it into drive, Tekla took no notice of the closed garage door and simply zoomed her way through anyways. 

“Well, Tekla,” Anastasia hissed through gritted teeth. “I’m gonna kill you now too.” Anastasia had worked hard on making this place entirely bugger-proof, and now Tekla had literally ripped a hole in her defense system! 

Anastasia was a faster rider than Tekla, and soon caught up to her. Skidding in front of Tekla, Anastasia balanced of the very precipice of the cliff. She was about to spew the dirtiest thing she had said in a… few weeks, when she became aware of a falling feeling. 

The edge of the cliff broke off, and Anastasia found herself plummeting towards the ground. The odds against her survival. Anastasia righted the motorcycle so that it would land on it’s wheels. Bracing for the impact, Anastasia thought she could see something falling beside her. 

_ Damn it Anastasia - why do you get so mad? _ Eyes burning in concentration, Tekla jabbed her finger into the side of Anastasia’s motorcycle. She then banged her own foot against the same spot on her motorcycle, causing a trapdoor to open, and a parachute to unfold. Landing alively on the ground, Tekla then extracted a small blade and cut the cords attaching the parachute to her motorcycle. Observing how discombobulated Anastasia was, Tekla did the same for her. Anastasia gave Tekla a small smile, then the two began to scan their surroundings. 

Due to the fact that it was late at night, no lights were on in any of the buildings. The roads were fashioned similarly to the ones on Earth, with occasional street lights and all. However, the entire scene had a bit of an orange and earthy feel, and most of the houses (or what Tekla assumed to be houses) were very low, yet covered a lot of ground. This made for excellent visibility, but nowhere to hide. 

Putting her motorcycle into silent mode, Tekla began to cautiously drive down one of the rodes. Exactly where she was headed to she was unsure of, but Tekla guessed that the queen’s residence would most likely be the tallest building with tons of guards around it. Just a guess, though. Silently turning onto and off streets, Tekla was surprised at the lack of residents awake. In an average human city, the streets would still be lined with cars and the sky starless from neon light. It was eerie. 

“There’s no one here,” Anastasia remarked. Tekla nodded. “It’s as if they were expecting us.” While this thought had not occurred to Tekla, Anastasia was right. Everything was quiet, silent. Not right. 

Coasting along a large highway, the colossal building came into view. It was far taller than any building on Earth, and its structure was intricate and almost artistic. It’s formidable awe was enough to send shivers down Tekla’s spine. What the heck were they thinking? There must be thousands if not millions of buggers in this city, with far better weapons than the girls were equipped with. Tekla could feel a sense of gnawing dread manifest in the back of her mind. 

Suddenly, a scream echoed throughout the valley. Preparing to shoot, Tekla whipped her head around and aimed her laser gun. 

Positioned perpendicularly on the highway were Anastasia and Celestia. Glaring daggers, Anastasia was hissing, 

“CELESTIA!!! Do you  _ not  _ see how apprehensive we are?! Tapping on my shoulder unannounced was completely unnecessary!” Celestia apologized, but Tekla could see the shadow of a smirk portrayed on her face. Evidently, Anastasia could too, but she let it go. Now was not the time for arguments. 

“We’re going to go rescue Rosemary,” Tekla informed. “She’s probably in the Queen’s building or something.” Tekla could tell Celestia was about to make a remark about how unprepared they were when Anastasia said,

“Looking at this situation logically, we can conclude that Rosemary had been communicating with the bugger Queen. One of the major disadvantages of the humans is that we are unaware of how the buggers communicate. If we figured it out, your name would be forever remembered as one of the brilliant scientists.” Celestia seemed to like that. Tekla had to give it to her - Anastasia was an amazing persuader. It was one of her great gifts, and Tekla was at a complete loss at how she did it. Nodding and smiling slightly, Celestia lept onto her motorcycle with gusto and zoomed off along the highway. 

“How much of that was a lie?” Tekla inquired. Anastasia shrugged. 

“Well, I really want to discover how the buggers communicate, but to be known as the greatest war hero ever. Not scientist.” Regaining her alert stance, Anastasia rolled up the highway following Celestia.

So it wasn’t a complete lie. Good to know. Jamming her hand on the accelerator, Tekla zoomed off at a great speed. Why wasn’t there anything to shoot yet? Was it seriously going to be easy enough to walk in all la-dee-da and just take Rosemary? Tekla was disappointed. 

However, her disappointment didn’t last long. Reaching the top of the hill, Tekla could see Anastasia and Celestia attempting to enter the Queen’s building. However, they were not alone. Anastasia and Celestia were fighting 10 buggers. The buggers were taller than them by about four feet, and with a powerful exoskeleton, neither of the girls were able to switch to offense. However, they hadn’t been incredibly hurt. 

It was even battle, for neither side was making any progress. Tekla smiled. It wasn’t a battle until she began fighting.

Adjusting the speed on her motorcycle to high, Tekla zoomed down the hill faster than she had ever gone, almost flying with speed. Hungry for the exhilaration of war, Tekla grinned manically. Slamming her motorcycle into two buggers, Tekla tore out her frying pan and began to swat at everything she could see. Following her lead, Anastasia and Celestia ran to their motorcycles and began to slam into the bugger guards. 

Almost all of the buggers had been defeated, and Tekla was anticipating a victory. What she was not expecting, however, was for 20 more to come barreling out of the castle! Tekla shrieked in annoyance, then lunged at her opponents. Acquiring her claw gloves, Tekla threw her frying pan to Celestia and began to slash at the fray. It was then that it occurred to Tekla that Anastasia was nowhere to be seen. 

“Look out!” Acting on instinct, Tekla veered out of the way, dragging Celestia with her. Looking up. Tekla could see Anastasia perched on a ledge about 20 feet up. Squinting, Tekla could see a sort of… gun thing? Attached to Anastasia’s arm. What was she planning? Soon, all of the buggers began to stare at her, and some started to climb the walls. Aiming, Anastasia held the gun out and fired. 

Out came two stunning purple laser beams. Near the ground, they connected, and a massive nuclear reaction went off. Tekla shielded her eyes from the blinding light. Opening her eyes, Tekla could see a gaping hole maybe 20 feet in diameter and 10 feet deep. 

_ It was a miniature little doctor _ , Tekla thought. How had Anastasia acquired it? Tekla had  _ begged _ the IF to invent one for her, but gave up after being turned down 10 times. However, there wasn’t time to think about that. 

Hastily climbing down from the ledge she had been sitting on, Anastasia put her motorcycle into park mode. What? They were just going to leave their motorcycles here? Tekla was about to protest, but one look from Anastasia silenced her. Anastasia was in control, not her. 

Banging her foot against the door, Tekla determined that it was locked. Annoyedly, she turned to Celestia. 

“Got any cool bobby pin thing that’ll open it?” Giving no sign that she had heard Tekla, Celestia pulled out something that resembled a flash drive and plugged it into a spot on the door. Peering at the digital lock, Tekla could see a pending bar appear. After about a minute or so, the bar loaded completely, and the door opened with a happy beep. Tekla had no clue what the device was, but Celestia and Anastasia evidently did, so she said nothing. 

The first thing Tekla saw upon her entrance was, well, the entrance chamber. There was a beautiful, white tile floor that was so polished that as well as there being lights on the ceiling, there were also lights on the floor. In the center, there was an intricate chandelier featuring the colors orange and green, and it appeared to be lit with actual candles. The walls were an earthly, pastel orangish brown color. There were chairs in the corners, as well as an elevator on one side. On the other side, there was a hallway with stairs. Like many of the bugger buildings, the ceiling was rather low. In the middle of the room was a soft, ornamental carpet with beautiful designs on it, and it had a bit of an oriental feel. 

The first word that came to mind was warm. This scared Tekla quite a bit, and she tried not to notice the slight smell of cinnamon that wafted throughout the room. Tekla loved cinnamon. 

Not wanting to walk anymore, Tekla started for the elevator. However, Anastasia grabbed her arm rather sharply, causing Tekla to shriek. Robotically, Anastasia turned to face her. Anastasia’s face displayed a look of absolute concentration. 

“No,”she said. “There is only one exit on an elevator. Stairs are better.” Without waiting for a response, Anastasia strode across the room and swung open the door to the stairs. Tekla followed her and looked up. 

In front of them was a gigantic, spiral staircase, so high that Tekla couldn’t see the top. Celestia groaned. There was no way they could climb all those stairs. 

This didn’t seem to stop Anastasia. Without hesitation, she began to climb. This was not what Tekla had in mind. Seriously, would it kill the buggers to come down here and fight? This was nothing like Anastasia’s video game. 

Realizing that she wouldn’t get her way, Tekla began to storm up the stairs, ignoring Celestia’s remark that walking that way would waste energy. Shaking her head, Celestia began to climb. 

Two hours and over 1,000 steps later (holy ****, if the purpose of the stairs was to tire the enemies out, it worked), an exausted Tekla collapsed in front of the door. Not only was climbing the stairway the exercise of a lifetime, every few revolutions there was a guard! Because Anastasia was always a revolution ahead and somehow managed to avoid the guards, Tekla had to take out every freaking one! Anastasia nudged her impatiently with her foot.  _ NO,  _ Anastasia, Tekla was to freaking tired to wage war at that very moment! Instead, Tekla just swore and batted away Anastasia’s foot. 

A few seconds later, Tekla was aware of a needle piercing her skin. Screeching, she jumped up and stared at Celestia, who was holding a syringe. 

“You appeared to be exhausted. Expecting that possibility, I had prepared a drug that will maximize your adrenaline levels. You should be thanking me.” True, Tekla felt really energized, but what the heck, Celestia?! Ya don’t just  _ inject  _ stuff into people like that! Tekla was about to share her thoughts when Anastasia silenced her, whipping her finger behind her to touch Tekla’s mouth in a be-quiet sign. 

“Shh!” she hissed. “Listen.” Tekla did. She heard it.  _ Oh my God,  _ she thought. It was the noise she had heard in the cave, the one where she had found the bugger Queen. Anastasia nodded. “We have to be very quiet,” she breathed. It occurred to Tekla that she had neglected to form a strategy of war until now, and mentally cursed herself for not reminding Anastasia. “Rosemary is most likely inside. On the count of three, we will bust open the door. Tekla, it will be your job to take out any guards that might be inside. Celestia, you work on waking up Rosemary. I will assist with both, and will monitor the situation, changing the plan if need be.” Being the co-leader, Celestia began to object, but to no avail; Anastasia was already counting. 

“Three, two, one, DIE!!!” The sudden screech after the whispers was a bit jarring, but it sent adrenaline rushing through Tekla’s veins (nice job, Celestia), and the girls broke down the door with a kick. 

At first, it appeared that only the queen was in the room, and for a moment Tekla thought this was going to be an easy job. Not one second after this thought ran through her head than five fighters climbed in through open windows and began to run toward Tekla. Oh yeah! 

Sprinting around the gargantuan room, Tekla worked magic with her laser gun, incinerating any that came close. For the first few minutes, everything was fine. Just fine. 

However, it seemed that the buggers were beginning to take the hint that the humans had no intent of backing down. Several of them began swarming in, until there was too many for Tekla to handle. Seriously, with 3o to one, she was practically getting trampled. At least the buggers respected her! 

“ANASTASIA!” Tekla hollered, knocking one unconscious then proceeding to shoot the bugger in the head (not that it mattered, another one simply came in to take it’s place). “A LITTLE HELP?!”   
“Coming!” Tekla heard Anastasia’s distant shriek. God, how many buggers were there?!

It was a few seconds before Tekla saw Anastasia leap into the fray, shooting down 5 buggers as she landed. 

“Closed the windows!” She hollered, ducking behind Tekla. “Then no more can come in!” Tekla mentally praised her. Anastasia was pretty useless at fighting anyways. She was much better at well, telling people what to do. Tekla supposed that was alright. Her method was more of, do what I want or you die.

Entering the eye of the storm, Tekla and Anastasia rotated around, back to back, shooting anything that advanced. Slowly, the mass of buggers began to melt away. They were doing it. Tekla and Anastasia were going to be victorious.

Sometimes Tekla couldn’t remember why she liked fighting so much. Just like everything else, it gets boring, right? Why did she always anticipate it; was filled with hope when she came across it? Tonight she remembered why. 

Never had she shared a bond with anyone like she shared with Anastasia right at that moment. The two of them, united in their goal; they had each other’s backs, and had no choice but to trust each other entirely. Never did Tekla trust anyone like she did in battle. 

As the last bugger fell the the ground and died before her, Tekla smiled. Not an evil, mischievous, or even high smile, but a soft, happy smile. She hadn’t done that in a long time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tekla doesn't have time to rest overnight in the hospital! Celestia needs her privacy, and the buggers need to be vanquished!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, we've rescued Rosemary. Interesting how that turned out, isn't it?

 

As soon as the door had been nearly kicked off it’s hinges, Celestia had spotted Rosemary sitting limply in a chair located in the upper left corner of the room. Tekla seemed to be occupying all of the buggers, so Celestia and Anastasia should be safe. Glancing around just to make sure, Celestia darted across the room to the place where the chair was located. 

She stared at the odd contraption. It appeared that the formics were smarter than Celestia had originally thought. She would have to make a mental note of that. 

As Tekla had thrown herself into the fight, Anastasia jogged up beside Celestia. 

“Right, so it looks like these wires are all connected with her brain, so we have to take them out… but we don’t want to turn off her brain either.” A surge of anger overtook Celeste - first she had been deprived of her commander duties, now this crazy woman was telling her how to do her job?!  _ Silence,  _ she told herself.  _ Now is not the time for emotion. _ Noticing a running computer beside Rosemary, Celestia scrolled through the content. Hearing Tekla call Anastasia’s name, Celestia was finally alone. 

At the bottom of the page, there were two digital buttons. Using her vague knowledge of linguistics, Celestia could make a semi-accurate estimate on which one was positive. Should she press it, though? 

While deep in her debate, a formic attacked her from behind, scratching her neck rather badly. Shrieking, Celestia swung the frying pan she had dropped on the ground with all her might. It crashed into the formic skull and, to Celestia’s disgust, made quite an indent. Shuddering, Celestia shoved the formic over to the edge of the battle hoping someone would take care of it. 

Celestia was not one to follow her instincts, but something in her mind was telling her to hit the button possibly dubbed positively. She was so sure it was the right decision that she impulsively clicked it. There. She had done it!

Seconds later, she was horrified at her recklessness. Going with her gut was never a good idea! If there wasn’t solid logic to back up a decision, then one should not make it! Why!? Why had she been so sure her gut was right? The last time she was impulsive like that, well, Celestia didn’t like to think about it. 

However, much to her surprise, the glowing wires attached to Rosemary’s brain stopped glowing, and Rosemary fluttered open her eyes. Celestia gave an internal cheer, the corners of her mouth twitching. 

Well, now she was feeling downright daring. Celestia had outsmarted the buggers, stoping their malicious plan to experiment on Rosemary in one fail swoop! She should- 

Ah. Perfect. On a table-like object in the corner of the room was something Celestia could identify as an egg. The buggers were insect-like, after all. That egg probably held the entire next generation. The perfect trophy. Snatching it, Celestia stuffed the egg inside her blazer before turning to face Rosemary. If anyone, even those on her side, discovered what she had taken, the consequences could be fatal.

“Wh-wha?” Rosemary seemed very discombobulated. No matter; there would be time for explanation later. The important thing as of the moment was removing the wires from Rosemary’s brain without doing any damage. 

Celestia thought back to the day she had her monitor removed. It had been very painful, but the situation seemed similar. Rosemary had several different monitors attached to her brain. Celestia remembered that she had read a short manual on monitors that day, out of curiosity. Rosemary would want to be asleep for this. 

Reaching into one of her pockets, Celestia removed a vial of  General Anesthesia and proceeded to pour it into the syringe she had used on Tekla earlier. She shoved all thoughts of instantiation from her mind. 

“Rosemary,” Celestia addressed her. “Do you recall having your monitor taken out?” Rosemary winced, then nodded. Good. She was bright enough to figure out what Celestia was going to do. “I’m going to inject this into you. It’s a sleeping drug, so that you don’t have to be awake while I remove the wires.” Rosemary nodded bravely, Celestia noticed. Giving it a bit of thought, Rosemary was actually a very brave kid. 11 years old, she had been kidnapped and practically used as a science experiment, and she wasn’t even crying. Celestia had to give her credit for that. 

Celestia injected the sleeping drug into Rosemary with great care. As she herself had developed it, Rosemary was asleep in an instant. Wincing slightly (no; this was not the time for emotions), Celestia found a pair of pliers in a nearby desk drawer. Anastasia and Tekla might be doing all of the fighting, but her job was pretty gruesome too. 

Removing the last of the wires and wiping her hands off on the chair Rosemary was sitting in (take that, formics!), Celestia noticed that the fighting began to die down. In five minutes, all that was left were several hundred formic bodies, and a very smug - looking Anastasia and Tekla. They turned around and grinned. 

“Well, are we spectacular or are we spectacular?” Anastasia gloated. Tekla giggled. 

“It was smart of you to bring the mini Dr. Devise,” she said. “That took out, like, 20 at a time if aimed right!” Anastasia bowed mockingly in thanks, and the two giggled again. 

“We’re not done yet,” Celestia reminded them resentfully. “We still have to make it out alive.” Tekla then seemed to realize something. At least one of them was smart enough to grasp the situation. 

“Oh no!” Tekla slapped her forehead. “We have to walk all the way back down those damn stairs!” Anastasia groaned and laughed hysterically at the same time. 

“Focus,” Celestia calmly commanded. “If we get out of here alive, it’ll be a miracle.” Tekla was about to say something annoying, but Anastasia stopped her. At least she had some sense. 

Walking over to the chair where Rosemary sat, the three girls observed as she began to wake up. 

“How does your head feel?” Celestia inquired. Rosemary rubbed the back of her head and neck. 

“Feels fine,” she replied. “I just can’t help but feel like there’s some piece of information we’re missing…” 

“A side effect of having the wires taken out,” Celestia dismissed. “It’s not important. Do you think you can walk?” Rosemary thought for a moment, then nodded. Helping her up, Celestia led the way to the door on the far side of the room. 

“That was dumb,” she heard Tekla say. “You’ve just resigned yourself to walking down a million stairs.” Hearing Rosemary groan, Celestia almost smiled. 

As soon as the floor was in sight, Tekla demanded to take a breather. Being rather tired herself, Celestia obliged. Sitting down next to Anastasia, Celestia began to discuss with her a possible battle strategy. 

“I wonder why the formics didn’t keep coming in?” Celestia inquired. Anastasia shrugged. 

“The most logical answer is that once the windows were shut, their form of communication was blocked off. It could also be that they didn’t want to lose to many; Tekla and I were doing a pretty clean job.” Anastasia looked confident speaking, but she still had an uneasy air about her. Celestia knew Anastasia well enough to know that if she could tell Anastasia knew more than she was letting on, it was because Anastasia wanted her to know. This usually meant Anastasia wanted to talk about something but was uncomfortable bringing it up.

“You seem uneasy about something.” Anastasia smiled. 

“I know this makes no sense, but it’s like I know something about the buggers that I don’t know I know, and that no one else knows.” Anastasia shook her head. “I know it sounds crazy, but that’s how I knew Rosemary was in that room. I was right, wasn’t I?” True, there were several doors lining the staircase. Celestia had been meaning to ask about that, but it looked as though she didn’t have too. 

“Continue,” she said. 

“Well, my gut is telling me that the buggers didn’t keep attacking us because they didn’t want to kill us,” Anastasia said uneasily. 

“You’re right,” replied Celesia. “That makes no sense.” Anastasia nodded, but kept talking. 

“And the reason that there weren’t any buggers in the streets? They knew they were coming. They’re scared of us - they didn’t want to fight us should they encounter us.” Celestia was about to reply, but she was rudely interrupted by Tekla. 

“Hey,” Tekla began. “There’s been one thing that’s really been - OH MY GOD!!!” Tekla was staring up at the top of the staircase. There the Queen was, along with several formic guards. 

“WE DIDN’T KILL THE FUCKING QUEEN!” Tekla shrieked. “WE HAVE TO GO!  _ NOW _ !!!” Leaping up, the girls began to spring down the staircase. 

“Wait!” called Rosemary. “This isn’t right, something’s wrong, Anastasia-”   
“NO TIME! GET THE FUCK DOWN HERE, ROSEMARY!!” Tekla screeched, falling down several stairs. Being relatively close to the bottom, the girls reached the ground within two minutes. Sprinting across the first room, Celestia threw open the doors. 

Thousands of formics were waiting for them. For a moment, the four girls stood in awe of what was happening, unable to process the sinking dread that they would never make it out alive.

“How?” Anastasia breathed, the desperation evident in her voice. “How did they all know we’re here?” No. No way. There was no way the formics knew… No. Just no. However, though Celestia was telling her arms no, they unbuttoned her blazer and showed Anastasia the egg.

“Oh.” For a moment, no one moved, the formic egg vibrating warmly in Celestia’s hand. Then… 

“DIE!” Anastasia grabbed a katana from off Tekla’s belt and began to slash at the enemy. “GET THE MOTORBIKES!” she screamed. Battle strategy was not Celestia’s area of expertise. She didn’t have a plan, but it looked like Anastasia did. At this point, it might be best to do what she was told. Rushing through the crowd seemingly unnoticed, the girls each found their motorcycle. 

“Rosemary,” Celestia instructed. “Ride Anastasia’s bike over to her. You’ll probably ride in the back seat.” Nodding, Rosemary vaulted onto Anastasia’s motorcycle and ignited the engine. Pulling out the frying pan, Celestia swung at everything visible while she and Tekla cleared a path through the swarm. 

Anastasia was in the middle of the fight, and she was not looking good. While she managed to stab a bit of everything, it didn’t look like she had successfully killed any of the formics yet, being too busy to grab her main weapon. Maybe she didn’t want to draw _too_  much attention to herself. 

“HERE!” Rosemary screamed, skidding the motorbike to a stop. Not a second after Anastasia leaped onto it, Rosemary took off. 

How Rosemary obtained stellar riding skills, Celestia did not know. There they were, skillfully alternating streets and crossing intersections. With every passing moment, the formics were left farther and farther behind. 

Upon reaching the cliff, however, the girls realized they had a problem. 

“How do we get up?!” Tekla screamed at Celestia. Celestia bit her lip. 

“I, uh, forgot to install the flying feature.” Screams. “Uh, how about we find a way on top of that building and hope the acceleration is enough to fly us over?” No one had any idea what Celestia was talking about, but they proceeded to break into a house and climb onto the roof anyways. 

Awfully short on time, Celestia screamed, “Put the thing on hyper-speed and GO!” There were many, many holes in this plan, but now wasn’t really was the time for rational decisions. Celeste giggled to herself and started the engine. 

Before she had the time to process what was happening, Celestia was flying through the air, then she was on the ground - the ground she wanted to be on! Celeste thought about looking back to see if the others had made it, but there wasn’t time. Ideally, she would make it back to the starship before the formics could see her. 

After a rushed 5 minutes, Celestia slammed into the ship. Turning off the engine, she noticed two other motorcycle-sized dents. 

“CELESTIA!” Celestia hurried her motorcycle inside the garage. As soon as she made it through the Tekla - shaped hole (what had gone on that night?), Anastasia and Tekla began to pour freshly melded metal into the hole, sealing it.

“Ask Rosemary stuff!” Anastasia called as she ran to get more melted metal. Celestia calmly nodded, then proceeded to lead Rosemary into the bio lab. As her own room was a disgraceful mess, Celestia usually preferred to talk to people in the bio lab. Besides, the bio lab had a bigger bed and a very comfortable couch. 

Celestia proceeded to sit down on the couch; Rosemary sat next to her. Being too tired to recall how to interact reasonably with human beings, Celestia extracted the formic egg and began to inspect it. 

Turning it over, Celestia noticed it was about the same size and shape of a human heart. It seemed to thrum with life, and had a bit of the presence that a human or living creature would. Looking closer, Celestia noticed that the egg even beat like a heart. 

The egg then unwillingly changed hands, and Rosemary gazed at it lovingly. 

“A hive queen is going to come out of there,” she said dreamily. Hive queen? Celestia had never heard that term before. “It’s going to be born in a few days. We should be careful with it; it means a lot to someone.” Seeming to come out of a trance, Rosemary began to panic. 

“I - Celestia! Help! I’m thinking thoughts that aren’t mine! Something has invaded my brain! Help!” Rosemary then began to hyperventilate, and it was a good five minutes before she calmed down. 

“Telepathy,” she then said. 

“What?” Celestia inquired. 

“Telepathy,” Rosemary said again. “They communicate with telepathy. I can think the hive queen’s thoughts.” Rosemary looked up at Celestia. Their eyes met. 

Celestia did not see Rosemary’s eyes. She saw the hive queen’s eyes, large, dark and youthful.  

“She wants you to give her back her sister.” Celestia had not screamed in fear for over five years, but the shriek she emitted that moment could be heard for miles around. Shaking horribly, Celestia dashed out of the lab and locked the door, processing what had happened.  _ The hive queen has possessed Rosemary. The hive queen has possessed Rosemary. The hive queen has possessed Rosemary.  _ Realizing this, a new wave of fear washed over Celestia. This was  _ bad _ , very bad. 

Celestia was not aware of running to the garage where Tekla and Anastasia were, however upon finding herself there Celestia slammed open the door. 

“ANASTASIA!!!” she screeched, sprinting over. “Anastasia - the formics-”

“Woah, woah, Celestia calm down, what the hell-” Tekla began, but Celestia continued to scream. 

“Telepathy! They communicate through telepathy! They’ve possessed Rosemary!” 

“WHAT?!” Tekla and Anastasia finally began to listen. 

“She can think the queen’s thoughts! She - the queen is controlling her actions!” Tekla screamed, and Anastasia looked to horrified to say anything. Finally, she turned to Celestia. 

“Celestia… what if I’m possessed too?! What if that’s how I keep being able to guess what they’re going to do?!” 

“Maybe they don’t know it yet,” Tekla added. “They’ll find out soon though!” For several moments, the three girls stood rigid, too scared and helpless to move. 

Little did they know, the panic was only just beginning. 


End file.
